Be The Change: October 2010

· “The 50 Years War” 300 min. 1998. Begins with the 1947 U.N. decision to partition Palestine and charts the ensuing half-century of enmity, warfare, mediation and negotiations. Includes interviews and news clips of heads of state and other military and intelligence leaders. Episodes on the first disc cover Israel's struggle for statehood, including the victories against Arab armies in 1948 and 1967, and the history of the Palestinian Liberation Organization. The concluding program looks at the Yom Kippur War in 1973, the Camp David peace accord in 1978, the start of the Palestinian "Intifada" uprising in 1987, the Oslo agreement in 1993, and the current attempts to consolidate a shaky reconciliation

· “All Quiet on the Western Front” 130 min. 1930. A group of young World War I German recruits pass from idealism to disillusionment with war. Based on the novel by Erich Maria Remarque.

· “Behind the Lines. As a psychiatrist at a respected Scottish asylum, Dr. Rivers heals shellshocked soldiers so they can be sent back into the trenches. Then he encounters a different kind of patient--a war hero sent to the asylum for publishing an outspoken anti-war pamphlet. As each struggles to cope with the war, the line between patient and doctor begins to blur. Taken from Pat Barker's 1991 novel Regeneration and based on true events.

· “Black and White in Color”, 1976, 92 min. An irrepressible and timely satire on racism, colonialism, and war. Set in the Ivory Coast during the First World War, a group of French colonials learn that their country is atwar with Germany. Spurred on by a capricious moment of patriotism, the Frenchmen decide to attack their German neighbors who reside in a colony up the river.

· “Bosnia: Peace without Honor”, 41 min. 1995 Traces the roots of the Bosnian conflict through the 1992-1995 efforts of America's Cyrus Vance and British diplomat Lord David Owen to negotiate a lasting peace. Both diplomats expose the role of world powers in brokering, mediating, and at times exacerbating the regional conflict. Owen attributes failures to establish an equitable regional government to the election of Bill Clinton and the resulting American foreign policy shifts--particularly the placement of UN troops in strategic Serbian sites.

· “Bowling for Columbine”, The United States of America is notorious for its astronomical number of people killed by firearms for a developed nation without a civil war. With his signature sense of angry humor, activist filmmaker Michael Moore sets out to explore the roots of this bloodshed.

· “Die Blechtrommel” [the tin drum, based on novel by Gunter Grass], 1979, English subtitles. Chronicles Danzig in the 1920s/1930s and the life and times of Oskar Matzerath the son of a local dealer, a most unusual boy. Equipped with full intellect right from his birth, he decides at his third birthday not to grow up as he sees the crazy world around him at the eve of World War II. So he refuses the society and his tin drum symbolizes his protest against the middle-class mentality of his family and neighborhood, which stand for all passive people in Nazi Germany at that time.

· “Born on the Fourth of July”, 1989 145 min. [Tom Cruise] A young man joins the army and fights in Vietnam, only to become a wheelchair-bound paraplegic resulting from battle. He then becomes a loud voice in the anti-warmovement.

· “the Brooklyn Connection”, 2005 53 min. A film festival favorite, The Brooklyn connection takes a gripping look at the world of 'gun running' through the story of Florin Krasniqi and the guerrilla army he built by transporting weapons from the United States to Kosovo.

· “Die Brücke” [the Bridge] 102 min. 1959 As World War II approaches its end, eight sixteen-year-old German schoolboys are drafted into the army to defend a bridge to their town. Betrayed and urged on by unenlightened leaders, they come to believe that this small and meaningless bridge is worth any risk to their lives.

· “Children in War”, 108 min. 1999. War: the tragic story of modern warfare and terrorism as told by the children of Bosnia, Israel, Rwanda, and Northern Ireland

· “The Children of Chabannes”, 1999, 93 min. During World War II many Jewish children were sent out of occupied countries in search of safety. Chabannes, France housed about 400 such refugees in a local chateau used as a school. This documentary presents the accounts of some of the students, teachers and townspeople of the efforts to protect the children in 1942 when the war came to Chabannes.

· “Choosing Sides: I Remember Vietnam”, [1998] 96 min. Hear stories from ordinary people who made extraordinary life and death choices during the Vietnam War.

· “La colline aux mille enfants” [“the hill of the thousand children”], 118 min. 1994 The French village of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, inhabited by farmers of Huguenot descent, pledges to challenge the actions of the Nazis against the Jews. Led by minister Andre Trocme, the village provided safety and refuge for 5,000 Jewish children during the Holocaust.

· “The Color Purple"originally produced 1985, 154 min. The heart-wrenching story of a young black girl in the early 20th century who's forced into a brutal marriage and separated from her sister.

Dialogues with Elie Wiesel, Richard D. Heffner [videorecording] : the moral responsibility of the individual in a changing world [HM1033.D53 2006] 3 videos, 270 min. Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel and historian and Open mind host Richard D. Heffner examine the moral responsibility of the private person in dealing with many critical issues facing us today. Their inquiry ranges into topics such as ethnic cleansing, Israeli and Arab nationalism, euthanasia, genetic engineering, the Holocaust, and capital punishment.

Encounter point [videorecording] / Just Vision presents ; directed by Ronit Avni ; co-directed by Julia Bacha ; produced by Ronit Avni, Joline Makhlouf, Nahanni Rous ; written by Julia Bacha ; director, Ronit Avni. [DS119.76.E53 2007] 85 minutes.Created by a Palestinian, Israeli, North and South American team, this film tells the story of an Israeli settler, a Palestinian ex-prisoner, a bereaved Israeli mother and a wounded Palestinian bereaved brother who risk their safety and public standing to press for an end to the conflict. They are at the vanguard of a movement to push Palestinian and Israeli societies to a tipping point, forging a new consensus for nonviolence and peace. Perhaps years from now, their actions will be recognized as a catalyst for constructive change in the region.

· “Enemy Mine”, 1985 108 min. The time is the future and a savage war rages between Earth and the planet Dracon, which is inhabited by intelligent, lizard-like creatures. An earth pilot and a Dracon creature both crash-land on the fiery, barren planet Fyrine IV. The two sworn enemies can think only of destroying each other, until they come to realize the only way either will survive is for both to overcome their undying hatred.

· “Enola Gay” [UG1242.B6 E56 2006] 145 min. Enola Gay: Get a look inside the bomber that helped bring WWII to a stop, development of the atomic bomb, and the aftermath. Hiroshima: Fifty years after America dropped the first atomic bomb, this documentary looks at the events leading up to its use in the light of new information about a hidden agenda. Did top military officials order the attack despite knowing that Japan was willing to surrender? Did a political motivation drive Truman to defy his closest advisors? These and other questions are investigated.

· “Europa Europa” [D810.J4 P472] 2003, 114 min. The true story of a Jewish teenager who survived World War II by living as a Nazi for 7 year

· “Faces of the Enemy”, Examines the psychology of hatred and war. Demonstrates how those considered enemies must be dehumanized in order to justify destroying them.

· “A Force More Powerful”, his six-part series tells one of the 20th century's most important and least-known stories-- how nonviolent power overcame oppression and authoritarian rule. In South Africa in 1907, Mohandas Gandhi led Indian immigrants in a nonviolent fight for rights denied them by white rulers. The power that Gandhi pioneered has been used by underdogs on every continent and in every decade of the 20th century to fight for their rights and freedom.

· “The Fourth World War”, 2004, 76 min. While American airwaves are crowded with talk of a new world war, the human face of war is rarely seen. This documentary weaves together the images and voices of the war on the ground - from the front lines of struggles in Mexico, Argentina, South Africa, Palestine, Korea, 'the North' from Seattle to Genova, and the 'War on Terror' in New York and Iraq. Spanning five continents, filming took over two years to document the story of how men and women are working to resist getting caught up in the current global conflict.

· “Gandhi”, stars Ben Kingsley. 188 min. Traces the life of Mahandas K. Gandhi, stressing his philosophy of nonviolence as a technique for politic change, from his activities in Southern Africa in the Indian Congress Party (1893) through his return to India (1915), his role in the Indian National Congress Party, and his various campaigns and struggles for Indian independence. Ends with his death by assassination in 1948, just a few months after Indian independence.

· “Ghosts of Rwanda” [DT450.435.G56] Frontline, 2004, 115 min. Through interviews with key government officials, diplomats, soldiers, and survivors, this documentary examines the state-sponsored genocide in Rwanda in 1994. Explores the reasons why the international community and the United States did not intervene as Hutu extremists killed some 800,000 Tutsis.

· “Hearts and Minds”, Examines the American involvement in Vietnam, and is a chronicle of the war from a psychological perspective. Includes interviews with General William Westmoreland, former Secretary of Defense Clark Clifford, Senator William Fulbright, Walt Rostow, and Daniel Ellsberg, as well as American Vietnam veterans and Vietnamese leaders. Presidents Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon are shown in rare footage. Winner of the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature of 1974.

· “Hotel Rwanda”, 2004, 122 min. The deeply moving true story of a five-star-hotel manager who used his wits and words to save more than 1,200 lives during the 1994 Rwandan conflict.

· In the tall grass [videorecording] : inside the citizen-based justice system Gacaca, 57 min. ocuses on the Hutu and Tutsi as they struggle through Rwanda's unique reconciliation process: Gacaca, a network of grassroots community courts. Shows the challenges faced by post-genocide countries as they transition from violence to peace.

· “In the Valley of Elah” (2007) 121 min. rated R. Stars Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron and Susan Sarandon. A career officer (Jones) and his wife (Sarandon) work with a police detective (Theron) to uncover the truth behind their son's disappearance following his return from a tour of duty in Iraq.

· “Incident at Vichy”, 80 min. 1973. Television adaptation of Arthur Miller's play, set in a detention room in Vichy in 1942, where a number of Jews await interrogation before being sent to concentration camps. Issues of personal responsibility are explored through the character of an Austrian prince who has been guilty of silent complicity during the German occupation of France.

· “Kim’s Story”, 48 min. This is the story of Kim Phuc, who was photographed as a nine year old girl running naked down a road in Vietnam, screaming in agony from napalm burns. Now, in order to confront her past, Kim comes to America on a remarkable odyssey to Washington's Vietnam War Memorial wall, as part of Veterans Day ceremonies. There she makes it clear that her mission is one of forgiveness and a wider healing.

· “Joan of Arc”, 56 min. Joan of Arc's story is viewed through her own eyes and told through her own words. Based on the actual testimonies of the legendary peasant-girl-turned-soldier.

· “Joyeux Noel” (English subtitles; ] 2005, 116 min. Dramatizes real events – on Christmas 1914 men from the trenches facing each other in WW1 temporarily stop shooting and fraternize with each other, discovering one another’s humanity. Later their respective high commands punish them. Film plays up the contrast between those who find humanity in their enemies during wartime and those invested in demonizing their enemies.

· “Know Your Enemy”, 1945 63 min. Frank Capra; script, Joris Ivens, Irving Wallace, Edgar Peterson, Carl Foreman, Theodore Geisel; narration, Walter Huston, Dana Andrews; music, Dmitri Tiomkin. Propaganda film made during World War II which was intended to acquaint the American with his Japanese counterpart. Explains how the religious, political, cultural, and economic history of Japan contributed toward making her a formidable foe. Intended to show the American serviceman the fighting characteristics of his Japanese counterpart

· “The Last Station”, 2009, 113 min. In honor of his newly created religion, Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy renounces his title, property, and family in favor of poverty and celibacy. For the Countess Sofya, his wife of nearly fifty years, this is the last straw! After she discovers his plans to leave the rights to his iconic novels to the Russian people rather than his own family, she decides to use every trick of seduction in her considerable arsenal, to fight for what she believes is rightfully hers. [although much of the picture focuses on relationship between Tolstoy and wife, it’s also good for seeing how hard it is to live in movement based on ideals, no matter how noble, and interpersonal dynamics that come into play among movement leaders]

· “Lord of War” [PN1995.9.S87 L67 2006] 122 min. stars Nicholas Cage as arms dealer who sours on his profession – highlights the addiction to violence and weapons of those who wage and supply arms to wage war.

· “Lysistrata” [PA3875.L8 N44] 97 min. 1987. Film retelling of Lysistrata who convinced the women they could prevent war by withholding sexual favors from their husbands.

· Myths that maim with Maureen O'Hara, 46 min. This video explores the social construction of gender identities and gender violence, tracing the stories, myths and images of our culture and showing the millenia-old patterns of dominance & subordination that lead to violence and abuse.

· “No Man’s Land”, 97 min. Set during the height of the Bosnian War in 1993, a group of Bosnian soldiers are advancing on Serb territory under the cover of a foggy night. At daybreak, the fog lifts, and the Serbs open fire. Soon there is only one Bosnian survivor because he was able to dive into a trench in no man's land. He then watches as two Serbian soldiers use the body of a fallen Bosnian to bait a land mine. He fires on them, killing one, and taking the second hostage. Now both are alone and equally armed, so they are forced to share a wary trust as they try to attract help from either side.

· “Our Hiroshima”, 43 min. 1995 Setsuko Nakamuro Thurlow, a relentless campaigner for peace, was 13 when the atomic bomb dropped in Hiroshima, killing most of her family. Her vivid eyewitness account, combined with rare archival footage taken before and after the event, provides a comprehensive record of this pivotal episode in world history. The program also takes a hard look at the politics involved in developing and promoting the use of the bomb, and delves deeply into Canada's role in supplying uranium and scientists to the Manhattan Project.

· “Out of Hitler’s Reach”,From 1939 to 1943, 185 refugees from Nazi-occupied Europe found a safe haven at Scattergood, a temporary hostel in what had been an abandoned Quaker boarding school on the Iowa prairie. Jews, Hitler opponents and others built a new life in the New World with the help of Iowa Quaker farmers and college students. Author of book by the same title, Michael Luick-Thrams, speaks to high school students and shows photos of the refugees. Refugee Gunter (George M.) Krauthamer returns to West Branch in 1998 and is also shown speaking to students.

· “Peace is Every Step” [BQ5410.P4] 52 min. 1997 Profiles the full range of Thich Nhat Hanh's life and work, documenting his efforts to help heal a world in conflict. He provides tools for anyone, from any tradition, to lead a mindful and meaningful life. Includes rare archival footage of his peace work in Vietnam during the war.

· Peace, propaganda & the promised land [videorecording] : U.S. media & the Israeli-Palestinian conflict / Media Education Foundation. 2 videos, 621 min. Exposes how the foreign policy interests of American political elites - working in combination with Israeli public relations strategies - exercise a powerful influence over news reporting about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

· Picasso, war, peace, love [videorecording] / Universal Education and Visual Arts ; directed by Lucien Clergue. 51 min. Deals with the works of Pablo Picasso from Guernica onward, showing photographs from several museums, galleries, and private collections. Presents live sequences of the artist in his studio near Cannes.

· “The Pity of War”, 1988 58 min. A portrait of the ravages of World War I as drawn from the poems, diaries, and letters of Wilfred Owen, who fought during the front-line conflicts of 1916 and 1917.

· “Porraimos: Europe’s Gypsies during the Holocaust” 57 min. Chronicles the Roma (Gypsy) Holocaust--Porraimos, or "the devouring" which shows how the pseudo-science of eugenics was used to persecute not only Jews, but also Gypsies.

· Rachel Carson's Silent spring [videorecording] / writer and producer, Neil Goodwin ; aPeace River Films production for The American Experience ; WGBH Educational Foundation, WNET/Thirteen and Peace River Films. [QH545.P4 R32 2007] 56 min.Witness the life of passionate biologist and environmentalist, Rachel Carson, and how she exposed the effects of the unregulated use of pesticides and herbicides by the federal government, and sparked a revolution in environmental policy.

· “Rape” 59 min. 1996 Four women share their stories of forced confinement and rape in Bosnia. We meet the men who have perpetrated the crimes, who claim they were acting upon a higher authority. In the Hague, where the International Tribunal is investigating war crimes in the former Yugoslavia, we meet legal consultants who discuss the implications of the trial of a former camp boss, the first person in international history to be indicted for rape as a war crime.

· Redemption, 93 min. While awaiting execution in prison, Stan 'Tookie' Williams, founder of the L.A. Crips street gang, denounces the lifestyle that landed him behind bars. Determined to stop violence, he begins writing anti-gang books for children, earning him critical acclaim--and four Nobel Peace Prize nominations.

· “Regret to Inform”, 72 min. 2000. Film maker, Barbara Sonneborn, makes a pilgrimage to the Vietnamese countryside where her husband died. She explores the meaning of war and loss on a human level and weaves interviews with Vietnamese and American widows into a vivid testament to the legacy of war. Award: Sundance Award Winner for Best Director and Best Cinematographer

· “Le roi de coeur”, 102 min. 1967 A Scottish soldier is assigned the task of disarming a bomb in a small French town at the close of WorldWar I. The townspeople have deserted the town leaving behind the inmates of the local insane asylum who embrace the soldier as their king.

· Savages, 113 min. Jon and Wendy Savage (Hoffman and Linney) are two siblings who have spent their adult years trying to recover from their abusive father, Lenny (Bosco). Suddenly, a call comes in that Lenny's girlfriend has died and he cannot care for himself. Lenny suffers from dementia and her familydumps Lenny on his children. Despite the fact Jon and Wendy have not spoken to Lenny for twenty years and he is even more loathsome than ever, the Savage siblings feel obliged to take care of him. Now together, brother and sister must come to terms with the new and painful responsibilities with their father. The siblings are forced to face the struggle with their own personal demons.

· “Schindler’s List”, 1993, 196 min. [Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley] The story of a Catholic war profiteer, Oskar Schindler, who risked his life and went bankrupt in order to save more than 1,000 Jews from certain death in concentration camps. He employed Jews in his crockery factory manufacturing goods for the German army. At the same time he tries to stay solvent with the help of a Jewish accountant and negotiates business with a vicious Nazi commandant who enjoys shooting Jews as target practice from the balcony of his villa that overlooks the prison camp he commands.

· “Secret Lives”, 2002, 72 min. This emotionally stirring documentary tells the stories of Jewish children hidden from the Nazis in extraordinary acts of kindness by non-Jews.

· “Shake Hands with the Devil”, 2005, 91 min. Lt. General Roméo Dallaire was the commander of the UN peacekeeping troops in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide which claimed 800,000 lives. This film follows Dallaire back to Rwanda ten years after the massacre in order for him to come to terms with the atrocities he witnessed there. Dallaire describes his experiences while in Rwanda and how they have since effected him.

· “Si te dicen que cai” [“if they tell you I fell”], 1989, 120 min. In the post Spanish civil war years, Catalan kids would sit in circles among the ruins and tell 'aventis', stories with no beginning or end or purpose, to vent frustration about the times. The movie tells these creative stories as flashbacks.

· “Sometimes in April”, 2005 140 min. Based on the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, where over the course of 100 days an estimated 800,000 people were killed in a terrifying purge by Hutu nationalists against their Tutsi countrymen.

· “Sophie’s Choice”, 1982 150 min. A drama set in post-WorldWar II Brooklyn revolves around Sophie, a Polish Catholic beauty who survived Auschwitz, her lover, Nathan, and Stingo, a would-be writer. As the three grow closer, Stingo discovers the captivating and moving truths that each harbor.

· “The Specialist”, 128 min. 1961. A documentary about the 1961 trial of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem using the original footage of the trial made by Leo Hurwitz, a "mesmerizing portrait of a horribly ordinary man".

· “They Looked Away”, 2004, 53 min. The evidence of what the Allies knew about the existence of Auschwitz and their reasons not to bomb the camp are examined through archival footage and interviews with camp survivors, historians, and military pilots, bombardiers, and photo interpreters directly involved in Allied missions over the Auschwitz region.

· “Things to Come”, 92 min. 1936. A classic science fiction fantasy about the world after a devastating war. Science leads the world to recovery after decades of war but still must meet the threat of ignorance.

· the tin drum [see “Die Blechtrommel”]

· “Toons at War!”, 1997 90 min. Videocassette release of three advertisements and fifteen cartoon shows produced mainly by Warner Bros. between 1941 and 1943 to promote support for the war effort.

· “The Trojan Women”, 105 min. 1971. Katharine Hepburn (Hecuba), Vanessa Redgrave (Andromache), Genevieve Bujold (Cassandra), Irene Papas (Helen), Patrick Magee (Menelaus), Brian Blessed (Tathybius), Alberto Sanz (Astyanax). Set at the end of the Trojan War, all the Trojan warriors and princes are dead and the women and children are left to be divided among the conquerors. An indictment of the horror and futility of war.

· “Wag the Dog”, 97 min. 1997. When the President is caught in a sex scandal less than 2 weeks before the election, "Mr. Fix-it" decides they need a war to distract the public's attention and he calls on Hollywood's top producer to create it. Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro, Anne Heche, Denis Leary, Willie Nelson, Andrea Martin, Kirsten Dunst, William H. Macy, John Michael Higgins, Suzie Plakson.

· “Walk on Water” [PN1995.9.F671555 W36] 2004, 103 min. While on assignment in Berlin, a homophobic Israeli intelligence agent is tasked with offing a Nazi warcriminal. However, he has a crisis of consciousness after he befriends a target's gay grandson.

· “The War Poets” [PR605.W65 W37 1996] 60 min.

· “the War Symphonies” [ML410.S53 W3 1997] 82 min. 1997. A look at Stalin's purge on Russia and the musical response Dmitri Shostakovich made through his symphonies Four to Nine, which he called "tombstones."

· “Winter Soldier” [DS559.2.W56 2006] 95 min., 1972. Vietnam veterans speak about atrocities committed upon Vietnamese soldiers and civilians during their time in the U.S. armed forces in Vietnam. Through testimony given at the Winter Soldier Investigation held by the Vietnam Veterans Against the War in 1971, press conferences, and interviews with individual participants, the film graphically portrays the effect of U.S. government policy and practice, which turned soldiers into animals bent on destruction and Vietnamese into "gooks"--Non-human "targets" for murder, rape, and mutilation. The veterans struggle to come to terms with the devastation they caused so that others will not make the same mistake again.

Be The Change

Thursday, October 14, 2010

There Are Cool Things Happening in the World

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Minutes 10/5

Nicolas Cage as Gandhi

Monday, October 4, 2010

Recommended Peace/War Documentaries

Sunday, October 3, 2010